[UPDATE] Per breaking news newsletter from NY Times:
"Letitia James of New York and 11 other state attorneys general said Thursday that they would sue over a cost-cutting initiative that had afforded young aides to Elon Musk broad access to the federal government’s most fundamental computer systems."
-------------------------------
Thanks for the comments, everyone. I appreciate you reading and taking the time to comment on this serious situation, which I do consider to be part of a coup d'etat.
To be clear: I am hoping this brief article is a call to action, not a reason to kick off our shoes and relax. The presence of Musk and his tech kiddies is a criminal act in my opinion.
For legal recourse to this, I turn to legal beagles like Jay Kuo and Joyce Vance. Subscribe to them. They're monitoring the situation, too.
If you have any money you expect to receive from Treasury or Social Security or any other government entity, check your account frequently. Log in, look for oddities or changes to how your web pages look. Look for anything different at all. I checked my Social Security account yesterday and it was fine, but trust me, I'll be checking every day.
The point of my essay was to drive home the point that a major overhaul of government systems is nearly impossible, so we have a *little* time to respond. I don't know how long it will take them to do general damage. I'm afraid I can't answer that one.
I also tend to think that anyone who is harmed by their actions should be able to raise the issue with their local county district attorney, as that should be an actionable offense under the state extradition compact laws, but I'm not a lawyer and I haven't seen anyone else suggest this, so i could be full of doo-doo.
If you log in to a government account that you do business with and you see something has changed, feel free to add a comment here. I'm not yet aware of anyone keeping a repository with a reporting mechanism for this, but that is one next step if it hasn't been done already.
In the interest of acknowledging those who are saying, "but they could still do a lot of damage," I give you this Atlantic article, which goes somewhat more deeply into how **any access is bad access**:
Charles, thank you for a sane and well written explanation of the system. (For background, I also worked in high tech, computer software security mostly but I wasn’t a skilled coder so I worked in other areas starting in tech support, QA and then product management for most of my career. I’m better at understanding customer problems and needs and working with engineers to define that than writing it.)
I’m less worried they’ll rewrite it than I am that they will break it. My only hope right now is that the engineers who are there from before can roll back the changes if needed. If the reporting is accurate they are setting it up to interfere with payments, to possibly obfuscate those changes and to set it up for AI decision making, something we’ve seen in the medical insurance industry isn’t ready for prime time. I’m also very concerned about the external servers they’ve brought in and allegedly connected to the cloud without appropriate security in place. I’m thinking international hackers will be able to access what they’ve put in place without following any safety protocols or laws.
All legitimate concerns. They should not be there in any capacity. I was mostly just trying to dissuade people from the mainstream media theme of migration, which I've seen in several places. There's even a possibility that Musk will use the government code base to test new AI software writers, but I didn't want to go there lol . Thanks for the comment!
I am a retiree from 30 years with the federal government, and I know a thing or two about the US Code. One of those things is the Codes are made up of words. Gazillions of legal words. Words spread ALL OVER the place, most of them not even in a gummint database.
Changing all THOSE words would be a feat beyond even the sycophancy of Elmo Apartheid’s minion geeks.
This is fantastic and what a super way to help educate a 70 something person who has zero knowledge of computers at all! Even though of course I couldn't understand everything I was sincerely able to follow along and truthfully make some sense of what is really going on. Knowledge is a powerful thing! And thank you for this article. All your hard work was not in vain because even if one person ( me!!) was helped you did a fantastic job 👍🏿💯
However, some really crappy AI might be able to. And what would trump’s South African fascist BFF use? HIs little boy-toy hackers might be using the overblown Chinese DeepSeek AI which suddenly appeared to take down Nvidia, the largest US chip manufactrurer.
No matter, as a ciitzen, I am outraged that an illegal immigrant from South Africa and a group of incel hackers are accessing my privagte data.
Your outrage is warranted and I wish it was magnified a bit more. It's a coup d'etat. Democrats need to treat it as such. I'm not understanding the lack of urgency on their part.
Oh Charles! I am so with you on their clear lack of ability to perform counter terrorism - because our US government is being terrorized by an illegal alien - musk has no morals - Trump is allowing musk with his drug addled brain to destroy what has evolved as a democratic republic - not perfect - but has the potential to work for millions of people. We need some dems with some - ugh. . . Courage!
Very helpful. Thank you for writing & posting this. It’s still terrifying, though, because their behavior is so brazenly lawless. One must assume only the worst of intentions in their mad-genius little brains. Congress has said/done nothing. Dems are a no show to this grotesque power-grab. Where are the “good guys?”
You're welcome and you're right, it's still terrifying. The problem with the Dems is a larger one that was too big to include in this post. Perhaps a separate article soon for that!
TFG wants total control, but it's unlikely that he even knows what Musk is doing. If he could even pretend to have an attention span more than that of a gnat, he has no desire to understand or comprehend. I seriously doubt he has the slightest clue what his cabal of appointees are doing, either in the forefront or behind his back.
Yes but his aides know what’s going on. The republicans know exactly what’s going on. They’re foolishly giving up their own power. Why aren’t they uniting with Dems to stop the takeover? They can do that. They choose not to.
Spineless soulless republicans rolling over to this lawless coup.
My guess, is that republicans know this will all end up in a train wreck, and they'll be absolved of any responsibility for whatever Musk does. Not sure they even have any say over trump appointing musk as a "special gov't employee", but they did vote against bringing him in front of committee to answer questions. Cowards, all.
I also work in tech and I think this was an excellent non-tech heavy explanation of how it all works, but the one comment that I most identify with is :”When I was younger I used to talk with people” 😀😃😄😁
What's the worst thing they could have accomplished or stolen? Also, what if they were sent in to close and other bros had already been sent in a few years back? Anyone starting to see SocSec spam type emails?
I pinned a comment, Charles, but I'll reiterate that if you do any business at all with he government, log in and check relevant websites frequently. Scan for even the most simple changes. Who to report them to? Ah, got me there. You can start with here, I guess, lol.
Really interesting article. I’m a bit reassured. Is their intrusion primarily to suck up data for future personal financial gain? And is it possible to leave something behind to “blow up” systems at a later date when Musk gets really mad at Trump?
The way large enterprise code base systems work is that they have code repositories where people have to check in their code by name. For example, GitHub is a common open source repository. All major organizations use something similar (usually, but not always, Git). Here’s a code check in by Marko Elez, the Musk 4Channer tech bro who got outed for racist tweets and who resigned. Of note: The name of the developer is recorded, and you’ll see in this file representation a “difference” visualizer that compares this check in with previous code:
Given time, they could un-crumb it all. That’s why I said in the original post that the complexity of the systems gives us a little time, and that’s it. Action needs to be taken. A federal judge has put a temporary stop to this thanks to a bunch of blue state states attorneys. We’ll see how it goes. Thanks for all the very legit concerns and talk.
It will still be tracked. Here’s an example of how code checkins work. This is an open source GitHub repository. The code here is real code created by one of the tech bro kiddies, Marko Elez. Note how the visualizer that compares what he checked in with previous code. These kids can’t come in and change the way source code is generated into the production system through the repository. That would be a monumentally difficult task.
Likely - I get it, I work with software engineers. With back doors, they can work and wait, and figure out how to override or work around GitHub, if that’s what they are using.
I agree it’s harder. But not impossible especially if you’ve built access in. Muskrat smart enough to playa longer game.
There are many things going on that I just know are wrong. In this, I understand how wrong their access is and all those annual security trainings at work make me panicky.
So angry. Thank you for responding though - I appreciate it.
Can I just add that you have the right to be very angry? I would not, under any circumstances, wish to to dismiss those feelings or make light of how serious this all is. I’m glad that the “team” seems to be dissolving in real time. It’s a reflection on the fecklessness of these nutcases. And late last night, a judge finally put at least a temporary stop on it. Will it be honored and/or enforced? Who knows?
Ha, I didn’t realize all but 2 have. The Mario guy is Marko Elez, who got outed for racist tweets and, well, being a 4Channer. He’s probably like, “But why you kicking me out and not Elon?”
Vance is a piece of work. I won't be surprised if the Orange Puff's insane blitzkrieg pops his mentally deranged brain right out of his cranium and we'll soon be talking about Vance's bizarre antics as POTUS.
[UPDATE] Per breaking news newsletter from NY Times:
"Letitia James of New York and 11 other state attorneys general said Thursday that they would sue over a cost-cutting initiative that had afforded young aides to Elon Musk broad access to the federal government’s most fundamental computer systems."
-------------------------------
Thanks for the comments, everyone. I appreciate you reading and taking the time to comment on this serious situation, which I do consider to be part of a coup d'etat.
To be clear: I am hoping this brief article is a call to action, not a reason to kick off our shoes and relax. The presence of Musk and his tech kiddies is a criminal act in my opinion.
For legal recourse to this, I turn to legal beagles like Jay Kuo and Joyce Vance. Subscribe to them. They're monitoring the situation, too.
If you have any money you expect to receive from Treasury or Social Security or any other government entity, check your account frequently. Log in, look for oddities or changes to how your web pages look. Look for anything different at all. I checked my Social Security account yesterday and it was fine, but trust me, I'll be checking every day.
The point of my essay was to drive home the point that a major overhaul of government systems is nearly impossible, so we have a *little* time to respond. I don't know how long it will take them to do general damage. I'm afraid I can't answer that one.
I also tend to think that anyone who is harmed by their actions should be able to raise the issue with their local county district attorney, as that should be an actionable offense under the state extradition compact laws, but I'm not a lawyer and I haven't seen anyone else suggest this, so i could be full of doo-doo.
If you log in to a government account that you do business with and you see something has changed, feel free to add a comment here. I'm not yet aware of anyone keeping a repository with a reporting mechanism for this, but that is one next step if it hasn't been done already.
In the interest of acknowledging those who are saying, "but they could still do a lot of damage," I give you this Atlantic article, which goes somewhat more deeply into how **any access is bad access**:
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/02/elon-musk-doge-security/681600/
Thanks to all who've read this piece. As Joyce Vance says, We're all in this together. Keep calling your congress critters.
Charles, thank you for a sane and well written explanation of the system. (For background, I also worked in high tech, computer software security mostly but I wasn’t a skilled coder so I worked in other areas starting in tech support, QA and then product management for most of my career. I’m better at understanding customer problems and needs and working with engineers to define that than writing it.)
I’m less worried they’ll rewrite it than I am that they will break it. My only hope right now is that the engineers who are there from before can roll back the changes if needed. If the reporting is accurate they are setting it up to interfere with payments, to possibly obfuscate those changes and to set it up for AI decision making, something we’ve seen in the medical insurance industry isn’t ready for prime time. I’m also very concerned about the external servers they’ve brought in and allegedly connected to the cloud without appropriate security in place. I’m thinking international hackers will be able to access what they’ve put in place without following any safety protocols or laws.
All legitimate concerns. They should not be there in any capacity. I was mostly just trying to dissuade people from the mainstream media theme of migration, which I've seen in several places. There's even a possibility that Musk will use the government code base to test new AI software writers, but I didn't want to go there lol . Thanks for the comment!
I am completely against any software that would know my bathroom habits. 😂😂
You’ve had a terrific career and, not only did I learn a few things, I feel better.
But, I’ll feel SO MUCH better when these little shits are in jail. Some day…..
Lol. :-)
And yup, they belong in the hooskow.
Please do write about Theil/Palantir ASAP. Little Prince Jaydee has been suspiciously invisible lately.
Oh, believe me, I've got a Palantir story in the works. I'll probably get sent to El Salvador for writing it, but c'est la vie.
I am a retiree from 30 years with the federal government, and I know a thing or two about the US Code. One of those things is the Codes are made up of words. Gazillions of legal words. Words spread ALL OVER the place, most of them not even in a gummint database.
Changing all THOSE words would be a feat beyond even the sycophancy of Elmo Apartheid’s minion geeks.
This is fantastic and what a super way to help educate a 70 something person who has zero knowledge of computers at all! Even though of course I couldn't understand everything I was sincerely able to follow along and truthfully make some sense of what is really going on. Knowledge is a powerful thing! And thank you for this article. All your hard work was not in vain because even if one person ( me!!) was helped you did a fantastic job 👍🏿💯
Thank you! :-)
Does it matter?? They got in with NO security clearance. That is the definition of treason.
We'll see how much it matters, but it buys some time for those trying to get them out of there.
However, some really crappy AI might be able to. And what would trump’s South African fascist BFF use? HIs little boy-toy hackers might be using the overblown Chinese DeepSeek AI which suddenly appeared to take down Nvidia, the largest US chip manufactrurer.
No matter, as a ciitzen, I am outraged that an illegal immigrant from South Africa and a group of incel hackers are accessing my privagte data.
Your outrage is warranted and I wish it was magnified a bit more. It's a coup d'etat. Democrats need to treat it as such. I'm not understanding the lack of urgency on their part.
Oh Charles! I am so with you on their clear lack of ability to perform counter terrorism - because our US government is being terrorized by an illegal alien - musk has no morals - Trump is allowing musk with his drug addled brain to destroy what has evolved as a democratic republic - not perfect - but has the potential to work for millions of people. We need some dems with some - ugh. . . Courage!
Very helpful. Thank you for writing & posting this. It’s still terrifying, though, because their behavior is so brazenly lawless. One must assume only the worst of intentions in their mad-genius little brains. Congress has said/done nothing. Dems are a no show to this grotesque power-grab. Where are the “good guys?”
You're welcome and you're right, it's still terrifying. The problem with the Dems is a larger one that was too big to include in this post. Perhaps a separate article soon for that!
Ok. But get these minions out of there. They’ve not been confirmed or background checked.
They have no authority.
On the other hand, if TFG wanted Musk to stop, he could stop him, right? One phone call to the drunken Defense Secretary would do it.
TFG wants total control. He doesn’t need congress now.
Republicans are completely and totally to blame.
Absolutely, get them outta there. I haven't checked this morning's news yet. I'm almost afraid to even glance at headlines these days.
Ditto Charles. It’s almost too much.
TFG wants total control, but it's unlikely that he even knows what Musk is doing. If he could even pretend to have an attention span more than that of a gnat, he has no desire to understand or comprehend. I seriously doubt he has the slightest clue what his cabal of appointees are doing, either in the forefront or behind his back.
Yes but his aides know what’s going on. The republicans know exactly what’s going on. They’re foolishly giving up their own power. Why aren’t they uniting with Dems to stop the takeover? They can do that. They choose not to.
Spineless soulless republicans rolling over to this lawless coup.
My guess, is that republicans know this will all end up in a train wreck, and they'll be absolved of any responsibility for whatever Musk does. Not sure they even have any say over trump appointing musk as a "special gov't employee", but they did vote against bringing him in front of committee to answer questions. Cowards, all.
I wonder if some of these guys do know it and just spend these weeks of the Trump blitzkrieg scouring for ways to make profits off it all.
I also work in tech and I think this was an excellent non-tech heavy explanation of how it all works, but the one comment that I most identify with is :”When I was younger I used to talk with people” 😀😃😄😁
I don't know how many people caught that, lol. :-)
Thanks for the quick review!
What's the worst thing they could have accomplished or stolen? Also, what if they were sent in to close and other bros had already been sent in a few years back? Anyone starting to see SocSec spam type emails?
I pinned a comment, Charles, but I'll reiterate that if you do any business at all with he government, log in and check relevant websites frequently. Scan for even the most simple changes. Who to report them to? Ah, got me there. You can start with here, I guess, lol.
Really interesting article. I’m a bit reassured. Is their intrusion primarily to suck up data for future personal financial gain? And is it possible to leave something behind to “blow up” systems at a later date when Musk gets really mad at Trump?
The way large enterprise code base systems work is that they have code repositories where people have to check in their code by name. For example, GitHub is a common open source repository. All major organizations use something similar (usually, but not always, Git). Here’s a code check in by Marko Elez, the Musk 4Channer tech bro who got outed for racist tweets and who resigned. Of note: The name of the developer is recorded, and you’ll see in this file representation a “difference” visualizer that compares this check in with previous code:
https://github.com/markoelez/pyslam/commit/75d6fc2226e50f7b5b14fac7da929631c09dddd5
Okay I think—so they’re leaving a trail of crumbs and we should be able to see everything they touched or manipulated?
Given time, they could un-crumb it all. That’s why I said in the original post that the complexity of the systems gives us a little time, and that’s it. Action needs to be taken. A federal judge has put a temporary stop to this thanks to a bunch of blue state states attorneys. We’ll see how it goes. Thanks for all the very legit concerns and talk.
It’s also possible hat they built in backdoors and Easter eggs that will be used at a later time.
That they could do, with or without COBOL knowledge.
I did hear that muskrat asked for help with a server login issue. Python much easier t use.
It will still be tracked. Here’s an example of how code checkins work. This is an open source GitHub repository. The code here is real code created by one of the tech bro kiddies, Marko Elez. Note how the visualizer that compares what he checked in with previous code. These kids can’t come in and change the way source code is generated into the production system through the repository. That would be a monumentally difficult task.
https://github.com/markoelez/pyslam/commit/75d6fc2226e50f7b5b14fac7da929631c09dddd5
Likely - I get it, I work with software engineers. With back doors, they can work and wait, and figure out how to override or work around GitHub, if that’s what they are using.
I agree it’s harder. But not impossible especially if you’ve built access in. Muskrat smart enough to playa longer game.
There are many things going on that I just know are wrong. In this, I understand how wrong their access is and all those annual security trainings at work make me panicky.
So angry. Thank you for responding though - I appreciate it.
Can I just add that you have the right to be very angry? I would not, under any circumstances, wish to to dismiss those feelings or make light of how serious this all is. I’m glad that the “team” seems to be dissolving in real time. It’s a reflection on the fecklessness of these nutcases. And late last night, a judge finally put at least a temporary stop on it. Will it be honored and/or enforced? Who knows?
Ha, I didn’t realize all but 2 have. The Mario guy is Marko Elez, who got outed for racist tweets and, well, being a 4Channer. He’s probably like, “But why you kicking me out and not Elon?”
Vance asked that he be brought back - youthful indiscretion and shouldn’t be punished for life. Guess he doesn’t care about his part Indian children.
Vance is a piece of work. I won't be surprised if the Orange Puff's insane blitzkrieg pops his mentally deranged brain right out of his cranium and we'll soon be talking about Vance's bizarre antics as POTUS.
And they won’t survive long if they do.